There are many instances where the automatic generation of text snippets for display to a computer user are valuable. However, there are technical problems involved in determining how to automatically generate such text snippets. For example, the rise of the Internet has caused the old classified advertisement model of informing potential candidates of job opportunities to migrate towards an online model. In the online model, users will often search or otherwise be presented with job listings matching some criteria. Other than the difference in how the job listings are searched or otherwise obtained, however, the online job searching model is still very similar to the old classified advertisement model. Specifically, the job provider, such as an organization looking to hire, will craft a brief description of the job (called a “job snippet”) to try to accomplish the dual goals of attracting the eye of qualified individuals and reducing the number of unqualified individuals that ultimately apply for the job. Creating such job snippets can be quite difficult.
Additionally, in the realm of online job listings, user interaction with the job listing can be important not just for the fulfillment of the particular job listing being viewed but also to the company hosting the job listings. Search engine ranking, either within an individual web site or outside via a general search engine, can be influenced by how users interact with a job listing. In other words, the more users click on or otherwise interact with a particular job listing, the higher the particular job listing will be in the rankings of internal searches within a job listing web site, and the higher the job listing web site itself will be ranked in external web searches. Since job snippet effectiveness has a direct correlation to user interaction with a job listing, the effectiveness of a job snippet therefore has a significant impact on search engine ranking inside and outside of a job listing web site.